She took part in the HMB World Championship Battle of the Nations 2016, which was held in Prague, for the first time in her life, and she already claimed her first victory – you might remember a graceful lady from Poland in a stunning red dress with pearls. That year, the Authenticity Committee gave Dorota Kriger the victory in the category for the Best Authentic Female Costume, and the audience gave her a generous applause.
“I’m not a historian. I am an artist. I used to study the history of art at school and in college, and for over 10 years I have been studying books and archaeological resources to learn more about medieval clothing. The choice for this particular dress was random. The red fabric was supposed to be for my friend who changed her mind, so I stayed with a piece of fabric, perfect for houppelande dresses. And that’s where it started. I found lining materials that matched the initial concept”, said Dorota.
She told HMBIA News that her dress was inspired by iconography from late the 14th century France. It is known as houppelande. Houppelande is an upper class, fashionable outer garment, popular in Western Europe from the second half of the 14 century. Its features include long, wide body, flared sleeves, and high collar.
Dorota’s garment was made of wool, silk and linen, embroidered with silk and pearls. It took about:
-4.8m of wool with a touch of silk;
-3m of linen;
-2m of silk;
-More than 700 freshwater pearls;
-10 Gilded silver buttons;
– 9 months of handcraft;
“Also it definitely took too much silk thread. All pearls and accessories were bought in Polish online shops”, said Mrs. Kriger. “Looking at the iconography, I found an outfit with patterned sleeves, when an idea popped into my head: What if I could embroider all dresses in such a pattern? Another friend gave me the advice to embroider it with pearls, and slowly, for almost a year I sewed the dress completely by hand.”
That year, this talented artist came to BotN as a civilian, while her husband participated in the Triathlon duel category for the Polish national team.
After 2016, happy changes took place in our heroines` life: the baby came into their lives and Dorota decided to stop participating in the Championship for a while. However, she plans to return to Battle of the Nations in 2023 and amaze us all with a stunning new outfit!
Now we know another success story of a talented master. The stunning dress that impressed the audience, participants and judges of the Best Female Authentic Costume of Battle of the Nations 2016 was created thanks to a series of happy coincidences, lots of devotion, dedication, hard work, and the result was undoubtedly beyond praise. The girl absolutely deserved the cup of the most important tournament in the world of HMB. We look forward to meeting Dorota again at Battle of the Nations 2023 and hope that she will again perform in her category in a new luxurious outfit!
HMBIA News
